


The Ashes of Miko Robes and Fish Salad

by AFalsePrayer



Category: Chaos;Head - All Media Types, Steins;Gate
Genre: Canon Compliant, College, Cooking, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 18:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18078470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AFalsePrayer/pseuds/AFalsePrayer
Summary: The year is 2012, 3 years after the earthquake in Shibuya. Urushibara Luka has graduated high school and is now heading to university in Shibuya. Even if Shibuya is still recovering, Luka wants to go there for one simple reason: a new life, and the school that he very so wished to go to. He wants to find a new spark within his life and explore for a new spark as his duty of lab member.But he didn't think he'd meet such unlikely friends along the way. Shibuya was an odd prefecture, for sure...Reading the Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate visual novels are advised, but this story will not be spoiler-heavy regarding these two novels.





	The Ashes of Miko Robes and Fish Salad

AD 2012.4.2 09:03

"So this is university," Luka whispered to himself. "Is this where I'll be for the next year?"

He could feel the pressure on his shoulders. He could feel the abundance of eyes looking at him from everyone. Was his outfit it? What was it, the off shoulder flower shirt or the high cuff pants? Maybe this was a bad idea to join university so soon. All the eyes on him made him feel nauseous. As if high school had started once more.

Urushibara Luka, a stunning sight of beauty, a pinnacle of feminimity. Someone who always took care of the shrine grounds as a shrine maiden.

But above all, he was a dude. A single variable that had been different.

And Luka had a hard time getting over it for sure. He was raised as the son to the shrine priest, and yet he constantly wore what his father and sister put him in. Feminine clothing, mannerisms, everything.

Who was he in the end? What truly determined who he was?

Luka shook his head. None of that mattered. This was a new world to him, nobody knew who he was. As his mentor had said to him...

"El Psy Kongroo," he muttered.

Move forth, if only to change the world.

Never regret the past. Looking forward to the future.

The present is the only thing that one can change with free will.

Behind him, the cherry trees swayed with their blossoming flowers. A brief movement synced with wind.

Nobody noticed. After all, it was a noisy flurry of young adults crashing into each other and interacting at new levels with freedom previously not granted by grade school.

The halls were bustling with people, talking to each other idly outside of the classrooms. The newly swept floors were cleaner than ever, with the lights above in the ceiling slightly flickering ever so slightly.

You could tell what groups there were-- there was the group of quiet geniuses in the distance, talking away with each other at fast paces with quick nodding. There was the group of shopping girls who were wearing fancy shoes, and seemed to be aiming for having a fun day outside, skipping class.

And Luka was panicking.

It was two minutes from his first class's lecture, and he didn’t want to miss class anytime soon. He couldn't risk being late to his first class like that, it would put him on a bad start. Most of the kids he knew would attend the minimum amount of lectures, but he did want to do well.

He also needed to find people to build a network with. It would be hard to do that without meeting them in class, he reckoned.

Luka looked back down at the map, given to the students at the entrance gate of the campus. The map went like that, with a hallway going down that way, a right turn, till that corner. And then another turn from the entrance from the east side...

Wait, had he come from the east or west side? Where had he come from?

Luka looked up from the useless cartograph in his hands, and scanned around frantically for anything that would tell him where he was. Nothing. Nothing of detail could tell him of any indicators. The building was too generic for any giveaway details. The doors, the windows, they seemed to look all the same.

"Ahhh, watch out!!"

_Wha—?_

Before Luka could move out of the way, something crashed into him, fast and hard. Luka quickly stepped backwards, but his feet slipped on the floor beneath him, causing his body to crash down against the marble.

It hurt. Not to mention the textbook that had poked Luka in the back from his backpack.

Luka groaned in pain, trying to get up. But whatever had fallen into him was now on top of him, and wasn't quite ready to get up.

Warmly pressed against him too. Soft. Blonde hair was up against him in a ball of some sort, with a hair band in the way.

Was it a person?

Luka didn’t really know. He was too anxious to assume, and he couldn’t look up enough from where he laid.

Then the head looked up. _So it was a face then._

_Huh._

The intruder lifted their face from Luka’s chest, and started panicking. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see where I was going, excuse me!” They got up quickly, and Luka was able to catch the visual details of the girl he’d encountered.

She had purple eyes, blonde hair tucked by a black hair band, and was wearing a white high collar shirt, red tie, with black stockings below. She was clearly someone who really cared about her appearance for college, unlike the boys in the distance.

The girl bent down, and seemed to be in a panic. "I'm so sorry, but I'm in a hurry and need to get to class." She started picking up the stuff that had fallen onto the ground-- pencils, pens, notebooks, it was as if she had forgotten to pack her stuff in a backpack in the morning.

Compared to this girl, Luka had been wary to prepare a lot for his supplies. Miss Makise had come to Tokyo for a quick trip, and she was able to help Luka and Mayuri out with some of the details regarding college. After all, she finished college a long time ago, she had experience.

Mayuri, unfortunately, was going to another college entirely, somewhere in Okazaki. She wanted to continue her craft in cosplay, and maybe even consider making a career out of it. Luka personally was glad that she was pursuing her passions, and really liked it.

However, that meant that Luka would be the only one going to school in Shibuya. He had chosen this school in order to get away from the shrine, and work in a land that was much more business and people than moe and electronics. Something new and thrilling, that’s what Okabe believed he needed. The grandmaster had full confidence in Luka. *Lukako, you’re a wizard!*

Luka didn’t know what the English phrase meant, but he was glad nonetheless.

Regardless, Luka was kind and felt bad for stopping this girl's day from continuing on. Miss Makise had mentioned that it was a hard shift to independence once college rolled around. He picked up the phone he saw on the ground, and inspected it. *What a nice looking phone,* Luka thought. *It's got a nice key chain on it too. A cool little groggy.*

"Sorry to bother you, but here's your phone...eh?"

Luka had gotten up to give the phone back, but there wasn't anyone there. The girl had disappeared. Nowhere in sight.

"...huh," Luka murmured to himself. He didn't know what to do with the phone. Should he call a number on it? Or should he look around for the girl that had lost it?

Then he heard some teacher yell, something about not blocking up the hallway. Luka jolted, alarmed by the fact that he'd forgot about his class, which was likely already starting. He was definitely missing his first lecture, oh god, he couldn’t be late—

* * *

Luka exited the classroom, and clutched his chest, breathing heavily.

“Thank god, the professor didn’t yell at me...”

Luka had managed to get into the room without any problems, and despite being tardy, the professor was kind enough to let him go, saying that he’d encountered a lot of students who just would break from the pressure of Japan’s work flow.

What a nice thought.

Luka started walking towards the west exit of the building. He wasn’t doing too bad for a first day. The few lectures during the morning had been easy, with the first lecture about Japanese history, something that Luka had plenty of experience given his role at the shrine back in Akihabara. However, the whole time, during the few lectures he had, he was unable to sit in peace.

Now that lunch was coming around, Luka exited the college building and took out the phone he had previously retrieved from the ground. It belonged to the girl who he'd crashed into previously, most likely. How was he going to return it?

He flipped open the phone, and saw the name. "Nishijou Nanami," Luka said to himself. That was the kanji, probably.

For some reason, that last name rang a bell to Luka's ears. Hadn't he heard it somewhere before? Maybe the name had appeared on the news once...

In any case, he should locate her. It was the polite thing to do. How should he do that? Should he call one of her friends?

Luka went through the contact book, but he wasn't sure who to call. There was "Onii", "Rimi-chan" listed as her most recent calls and emails. What would be luck for him?

He dialled both numbers, but to his dismay, nobody picked up. Their voicemails were equally useless, with one going to an automated message, and the other one simply having no voicemail function at all.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Luka said. He was worried. He would hopefully be able to resolve this issue earlier, and not have this ticking time bomb in his hand.

“...Perhaps I’ll run into her if I wait outside this entrance,” Luka said to himself. “Everyone is going to lunch sooner or later, and they’ll have to go through here for that, right?"

*But what if I'm wrong? Maybe they decided to not even have lunch outside. They could have it in the food court.*

Luka shook his head. It was entirely possible that the girl could’ve just stayed at the food court, which would result in him staying while on a hungry stomach.

That would just be futile. And while Okabe might have had the time to do that, Luka didn't want to waste his time any more than others.

"What good picks of food are there around here? I wonder..."

There was a noodle shop a few blocks down, and Luka's lectures were done for the day. There was also a nice café down the street, which Luka had been recommended by the college. He could eat at McDonald's, but he didn't want to rely on that for the few years to come.

"Hm..." Luka left the college campus, and started heading in the direction of the noodle shop. He could have lunch there, and then relax at the coffee shop. The coffee shop was partners with the college, so hopefully Nishijou-san would arrive and be able to retrieve her phone.

Luka's footsteps were almost muted, compared to the abundance of noise around him. As the largest abundance of people in Tokyo, Shibuya was an incredibly noisy city. It was even noisier so, due to the reconstruction that was happening.

That was right. Luka wouldn't forget that event on the news at all. Shibuya had fallen to the ground, on the 7th of November, 2009.

Two and a half years ago. It has been an incredibly trying period since then, where people would very much cry about the amount of things that had been lost during the earthquake. It had taken many people's lives, and most importantly, it only hurt Shibuya, something the people could not forgive.

Looking around, Luka could see the damage was being slowly repaired. The tall 107 building was repaired, as well as most of the roads. Many buildings on the east side were still being restored, businesses having moved away from Shibuya to other districts.

It saddened Luka. If Akihabara was affected like this, he wouldn't know where he'd live, nor where the shrine would stand. So many precious things would be lost, and as someone who had such a large influence on the prefecture, it would be like seeing their own child starve.

*Faris would likely think the same thing. After all, she actually owns the city.*

Yet despite the damage on Shibuya, it didn't look ugly at all. It was in a reintegration, and Luka actually liked the new colour that Shibuya had. A new sleek look, giving it more activity.

Luka walked down into the subway, and into the noodle shop. The train lines were the first things restored when Shibuya was announced to be revived, which was important for Tokyo-- they were the largest veins for transportation in Japan.

"Welcome!"

"Good day," Luka replied politely. He saw several people grab tickets, so he grabbed one as well. He then went up to the register, and politely ordered a bowl of udon noodles.

"We shall be with you in a moment," the employee replied. Luka sat on a nearby stool, and let a nervous breath out. Shibuya was unique enough where people wouldn't recognise him like Akihabara, but at the same time it gave Luka anxiety about interacting with others.

He did not like it a single bit.

"Here's your meal, miss."

"Thank you," Luka replied, not correcting them for calling him a girl. His strategy was to not debate these kinds of things unless it came up, it would lead to way too much public ridicule most of the times.

Luka looked at his bowl of Udon. It looked good, but it seemed like a mass produced meal. Luka felt that given his cooking capabilities, he could definitely do better.

*"Hey, nee-san!"*

"Thanks for the meal," Luka said quietly. Luka raised his pair of chopsticks and started to eat his Udon. "Mmm, this meal is quite good."

*"Oi!"*

The texture of the noodles was definitely appealing. A little dry, but supple. It held up well, which Luka really appreciated--

A hand slammed on the table, knocking a couple of noodles onto Luka's shirt. "Hey, can't you see I'm talking to you?"

"H-huh?" Luka didn't know how to react to the sudden visitor. Who the hell?

Luka put his noodle bowl down, and looked up.

Oh. It was the girl who had dropped her stuff in front of him before. She was loud, alright.

"Why do you have Nana's phone?"

"Huh? Oh!" Luka remembered now. He took the mobile out of his pocket, and showed it to Nishijou-san. "You dropped your phone earlier, so I was trying to look for you. I am afraid I could not find you earlier."

"Liar! Phone thief!"

Luka had zero good responses for that. She wouldn't even listen. All she did was just refuse to listen.

"Nishijou-san, correct? Here's your phone."

"Hnn..." She took her phone out of Luka's hand, though rather roughly. "You wanted to steal my phone because it had a cute bulge eyed hoppy on it, huh?!"

"Hoppy?" So that was what it was called, Luka couldn't remember the name of it. It was a popular fad that had gone viral in the past three years, but was finally beginning to die out.

Regardless, this was just incorrect. Luka stood up from his seat, setting down his chopsticks. "Nishijou-san, I did not try to steal your phone. I apologise for taking your phone though, I truly only meant to return it later when I found you." He then bowed deeply.

When Luka looked up, Nishijou-san was already blushing profusely, embarrassed by the sudden behaviour. "It, it's not..."

"Yeah, you brat! Apologise to her this moment! She doesn't deserve to be accused of a thief!"

"How dare you!"

"Boo!"

"Brat, get out!"

People started standing up and supporting Luka, calling Nishijou-san the fraud, whose face was turning pale and scared. Luka didn't have a chance to make up peacefully, however, because Nishijou-san immediately ran out.

Luka felt bad, but he didn't have time to call after her as the people in the noodle shop started coming around and offering to pay him for lunch. People were calling him a victim, someone harmed, an innocent little college girl who was just having lunch (but he was a guy).

But Luka wasn't a victim. He just felt bad. All he could do was watch the girl flee helplessly.

The flurry of activity in Shibuya. The reconstructing lives. The rejuvenation of lives that existed before an earthquake.

The flowers that were supposed to fall, blossoming and giving their blessings into the sky.

The world spinning on its axis, never changing and constant.

The snap of a small tree branch, as footsteps pass by.

But that alone is enough to alert a small animal of danger. Enough to start a fire by its own.

Enough to bring bonds between strangers.


End file.
